td5roo

So for anybody wondering how we got on, it all went quite well in the end. As our fibre is managed, we had to pay our provider to do some remote engineering work to set everything up to allow the UDM Pro Max to exist as a new link in the chain between the CPE and the network. Once that was done, we got it in and working very easily, although that setup meant that we had to alter the config for uptime checking as it was failing one of the checks and so assuming that the network was down when it was actually working fine. Changed it to purely IP ping based and it was happy. For the moment we are continuing to use our DC for DNS and DHCP so we set up the UDM to use the DC as a DHCP relay, etc - all good there. Sadly, due to the managed setup, we were unable to put VLANS in place in the first instance but this is something we'll be looking at - I can see us changing suppliers anyway when the contract is up (and indeed I have been talking to new suppliers for quotes) so we'll look at that then. AP and switch setup was also very smooth. In the end, we decided to go for it and do one school per school holiday. We got the junior (bigger) school done in a couple of days, and the infant school was also pretty quick to do - albeit we had to run a new suspended ethernet cable between two buildings as the fibre link chose that exact point to die... thank goodness it happend during the summer holidays! So we are now free completely of the knackered old Ruckus APs that soldiered on many years past their best days and, apart from one or two little outliers, almost our whole network infrastructure is Ubiquiti and we're pretty pleased with things so far. Even just with the U7 Lites, the coverage is better, 5GHz works beautifully, obviously we have improved security with WPA3, etc. Reliability has been excellent. There's still lots to do but the experience has been great so far.

Hi all, So our next wonderfully exciting project is to get everyone from MS to Gmail as part of our Google Workspace transition. The thing is, we are in a bit of an awkward position where I can foresee plenty of issues so I'd like to ask for opinions and suggestions please. In no particular order: We have to do this during term time - we are limited on time due to licence expiry at MS not working in our favour so have to do what we can to minimise the impact of this on internal and external comms! We are moving from 2 domains to 1 domain but sort of also to 3 domains! On MS we currently have 2 domains - a-infantschool.com and a-junior-school.com We are going to 1 domain which is the-a-schools.com so is different from both We also want to preserve the existing domains by using aliases to ensure people with existing contact info can still reach the right person etc etc, website logins don't break, etc - the domains are verified in Google but of course it will take time for the DNS changes to propagate when the time comes to point them to Google We need to migrate emails and calendars of course but we don't want to miss anything that happens during the process - is a delta migration at the end still the way to go? I could easily have missed something as I'm stressed due to in and out of work stuff and my brain is more close to a puddle of grey mush than anything useful at the moment! Anything you might be able to suggest to make life a little easier would be greatly appreciated. Obviously domains are not really those specific ones but you get the idea. Thanks everyone.

Hi all, I know it's a bit of a long shot, but if anyone has a decent working retransfer ID card printer they'd be happy to pass on (or sell cheaply) to a school in need, it would be greatly appreciated. Please let me know if you have one, or have any leads. Even refurbished ones are a major stretch financially for us. Kent based but will pay for postage etc. Many thanks, Roo

It's double gates rather than separate ones so they close together and the idea (which I have perhaps explained poorly) is that they would be maglocked to each other. Inhibiting the drop bolt was a definite thought when I looked at how to do this. 100% appreciate the advice - just wanted to double check my potentially mad idea with the modus operandi of the maglock specifically.

Sorry - the right hand side gate would remain closed with a drop bolt so just the left hand side gate would actually open with the maglock - so the maglock is only to hold the left gate onto the right one, rather than both gates together, if that makes sense. I thought by making it work with only one opening gate and having the maglock and plate on either gate at the point they join would be more effective than doing it on the hinge side of the gate as you've got the whole gate as leverage that way - that also would complicate matters as we'd need to get power across to the opposite side of the path to fit the maglock to the left hand (first opening) gate rather than the right hand one. Both gates would only be open when the system was manually overridden at times when general access is allowed and both gates would be opened by hand. This may allow a little bit of play in the movement of the gates when together but would still be very difficult to force your way through I'd have thought? Obviously, we're not expecting to protect against things like vehicles smashing them, just unwanted pedestrian access when the site needs to secure.

Hi folks, Not the usual sort of hardware question here I imagine, but it's something I'm having to think about. We have a pedestrian double gate, quite big - the total opening is about 3.3m so you'd fit vehicles through it very comfortably - on our school site which we need to put some form of access control system in place for. We are confident in Ubiquiti in terms of the readers and control hubs etc and are planning on using that for all of our doors across the schools when we replace the ancient Kantech gear we have now, but the gates themselves are posing a bit of a conundrum. Because they are double gates, and so large, the more traditional mounting methods for mag locks (we want fail-safe rather than fail-secure) don't really work, so we would have to mount the mag locks vertically rather than horizontally. We are happy to have only one gate actually in use while the system is active (there will be times when the gates are manually fully open to allow parents in and out), so the right gate (which closes first) stays shut and the left gate (which closes second) is the one used to get in and out. This is helpful as the power will be supplied from the right side rather than the left, so the actual electromagnet can go on the right gate. My theory here is that things are fitted to the right hand gate with enough slack to allow everything to move nicely as that gate is manually opened and closed at the relevant times when the access control system isn't being used. I suppose my real question here though is regarding the maglock itself - based on this vague outline, do any of you have any recommendations for kit you know of or have used before that would be appropriate? Is there anything that should be stopping or discouraging me from using the general Ubiquiti maglocks (obviously the heavy duty one due to the weight of the gates) and just mounting them appropriately for the gates? We are very tight on budget so replacement of the gates or anything like that is pretty much off the cards here altogether, so I am trying to deliver something that works well enough without dumping a pile of cash we don't have into it. Any feedback or suggestions on my rambles would be much appreciated. Cheers, Roo

For anyone who does manage to end up with an issue while the warranty is still valid, we have found ViewSonic warranty/RMA to be excellent. We had a total device replacement after a screen died completely and they were quite quick to get it all sorted, and as the -3 version of the display was no longer available, we had a new -5 instead. Sod's law of course as you folks say it happens just after the warranty expires.....

Perfect, thanks - hopefully this will ensure nobody misses out!

OK, thanks - just because the form requires that you answer that question, and there isn't an option for not being a member of any of them!

Do schools have to be a member of NAHT, nasen or PiXL to be eligible?

Could you ping me the deets as well, please? There's a serious difference between what we're paying and what you're paying, and you're getting Smoothwall the same as we are, and we don't get VOIP mobiles et al either..... I'd be very interested to compare notes!

Hi all, Using Windows Server 2016 Standard on our DC, and I am looking to move DHCP control over to our new Dream Machine Pro Max when that gets installed. Obviously, lots of stuff needs to have static IP addresses, like copiers, access control devices, boiler/heating controllers, etc. I've tried exporting our list of reservations from Microsoft DHCP but there's no MAC addresses in there at all. Is there a way to get an export that includes MAC addresses? Many thanks in advance. Sorry for the edits, I was lacking in brain function.

Hi all, So the time has come - we've got the UDMPM and it's hopefully going in during the Easter break. The added complications are that we still have a DC, and an upstream router from our broadband provider. This is going to be fun.

Currently we use Netsweeper which is provided by our broadband supplier.

We're doing UniFi for everything, switches, APs, cameras, the whole lot, deliberately, so will do that - that makes good sense. Thanks!